Government Contract
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: The confessions of a software engineer who was privileged to participate in a 'dream' robotics project. Any similarities to the author are quite intentional!


**Government Contract**

_A.N. Have you every imagined your dream job, something you'd literally die to get the opportunity to do? The inspiration for this story comes from a recurring dream that I have been having. The theme is similar to my previous short "UFO". If only it were true!_

_I don't own the rights to the Tetsuwan Atom character. Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka._

* * *

I'm a software engineer. I create computer software for embedded processors, you know the micro chips that run your smart devices like your iPods and smart phones.

What led me to my choice of career? It could be all the science fiction stories I read as a kid. I often imagined building my own robot companions after the likes of Robbie, Robert from fireball XL5, the robot from "Lost in Space", Marvin the paranoid android, or Data from Star Trek TNG. I got into computers while in college when the first micro computers came out with the Imsai and Altair computer kits. I owned an early KIM-1 that I expanded with extra memory and tiny basic.

My first job was with the Digital Equipment Corporation, the guys that invented the mini computer back in the early 1960's. I've worked for various companies over the years, and I've seen the ups and downs of the industry, including the great dot com bubble burst. So, nearing retirement age, I was interviewing for yet another job with a small company that I hadn't heard of before. Little did I know what I was getting myself in for.

* * *

Johnson Robotics is a small, local company that does a lot of contract work for other companies. They designed embedded control systems that are used in various automated devices, and were rumored to have developed a simple, but very capable AI system. I was a bit concerned that I might be facing age discrimination when I was interviewed by some of the programmers and a project leader, but then I was introduced to 'old man' Johnson. Clyde Dale Johnson, the owner and founder of the company, was at least ten years older than myself. Mr. Johnson was over six feet tall, with a nearly full head of silver gray hair. He had a prominent Roman nose, and a short protruding silver gray beard. Mr. Johnson introduced himself and told me his story. He had worked in the AI lab at MIT along with Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU movement. His entire career had been devoted toward the goal of creating a computer that could think for itself, and the company that he founded had done quite a bit of research toward that goal.

Mr. Johnson seemed to be quite impressed with my resume, but I was a bit concerned when he asked if I had any experience with AI programming.  
"I've done quite a bit of embedded software for smart devices, diagnostics, and project prototypes, but I've never really worked on robotics or artificial intelligence." I confessed.

"I doubt that anybody I've ever interviewed has any real AI experience." Mr. Johnson said. "I've developed the core AI designs that this company uses in its software, and everyone that has ever worked here has had to study and learn my software."

* * *

So I got the job. I was one of a half dozen new employees hired at about the same time. Mr. Johnson explained the reason for the companies expansion to us during a group meeting.  
"We've been chosen as the prime supplier for the testing software and hardware for a government contract. We will be doing integration and testing for many of the hardware assemblies, and AI software for a bleeding edge robotics project." Johnson explained.

"You know" I said "With all of the infighting and budget wars going on in Washington, I'd be concerned about accepting a contract from the government without some very good terms."

Johnson laughed at me. "I didn't say this contract was with the U.S. government. It's actually with the Japanese government. We are the only American contractor on this project. We will be rubbing elbows with the likes of Honda, Toyota, Matsushita, and a few others. A few of you will get the opportunity to travel to Japan to assist with some final assembly and testing. We might even get to see the final result of this project, if we are lucky."

I was given no idea what the final purpose of the overall project was to be. I suspected that Mr. Johnson knew more than he was telling us, and that he had to keep the information that he had been made aware of secret from most of his employees due to a NDA agreement with the Japanese government. Little did I know that by being a bit over enthusiastic in my work and violating protocol, I would find myself admitted into the projects secret heart. I still can't believe what was accomplished.

* * *

I started out on the job by studying the interface specifications for the network interconnections to be used on this project. Each of the various systems communicated over a fiber optic network cable. This was a high speed, noise immune interconnect. I was tasked with creating the 'black boxes' which would generate the required network command sequences to test each subsystem by speaking their specific command language. I spend several months developing and bench testing my creation. Meanwhile across the pacific, the other companies in the consortium created by the Japanese government were busy developing their prototype hardware.

One day a well packed crate arrived in my office with a pile of design specification and testing requirement documents. I carefully opened the box and unpacked what was inside. The assembly appeared to be a prosthetic human arm, or at least part of one. It consisted of a perfectly detailed hand, wrist and forearm up to, but not including the elbow joint. A fiber optic interface cable, and a power cable emerged from where the elbow joint would have been. The prosthetic was about the size of a child's, I would estimate that of a ten year old. I discovered that the cables were terminated according to specifications I had already designed to, and I could use my my black box interface to control the limb.

The test specifications required me to verify control and movement of the hand in various degrees of freedom. I had to test for tactile feedback and motor control. After several weeks of tweaking my code, I had verified operation of the forearm and hand, and I was impressed at the design and construction of it. It was made of some very high tech stuff, I couldn't begin to guess at the strength of the materials that it was made of. This was no ordinary prosthetic. The one test that wasn't in the requirements, was to measure the gripping force that the hand could generate. I rigged up a test jig using strain gauges with heavy springs in a ball like assembly. I had the hand grip this like a tennis ball, and programmed it to squeeze the rig between the palm and fingers. Slowly I increased the gripping force until my measuring device reached its limit, which was somewhat above what a flesh and blood human hand could produce. I had 'pegged the meter', yet the hand was not yet at its maximum! On a whim, I put a billiard ball into the hand and programmed it to squeeze it. I increased the grip pressure and the billiard ball exploded into a cloud of dust! This was crazy, the robotic hand had the grip of a superman! I wrote up the results of my experiments and included them with the official test reports.

The next day, Clyde Johnson asked me into his office.  
"You did an excellent job on the testing for the first prototype of the arm assembly, and your test report was well written. However, you performed an extra set of tests that weren't in the requirements document, and included a detailed section about it in your report. I wish you had shown that to me before emailing it on to the Japanese." He said. "I guess, I'm partly to blame since I didn't explain some things to you, but now we have a small problem."

A wave of concern came over me. Had I overstepped my boundaries and was about to get fired for it?

"I guess you've just managed to elect yourself to the group that will be going to Japan." He sighed. "Now that you have some knowledge about the project that's been sequestered from most of the engineers, I guess you might as well be brought fully in."

A look of puzzlement must have come over my face, and Johnson read it. He asked me to close the door to the office before continuing.

"The project we are working on was given the code name 'Atom' by the Japanese." Johnson explained. "It started with the object of creating a human interactive robot with the level of intelligence and self awareness of a five year old human being. It was to be the first step toward the development of service aid robots. I understand that after bringing us on board they have raised the bar a bit on this since the project was first started. I also know that they are also looking at some 'enhanced' abilities as well, and you have just discovered something along those lines with your testing. I think the Japanese desired to keep us in the dark by being rather specific in their specifications. Now that they have your name attached to that report, they will probably expect to see you present during our trip to Japan for the final testing and integration."

Thus I found myself drawn into the inner circle of what was to become a strange adventure.

* * *

The next subassembly that arrived for my testing was what appeared to be from the head of an android. It was just a raw skull with no skin or hair, containing the sensors that my 'black boxes' would be testing. Although it had no covering, I could estimate what the fully assembled size would be. Like the hands and forearm, it would be sized like that of a ten year old child.

The specifications indicated it contained a pair of high gain, wide band microphones that would serve as ears; a pair of camera eyes that had wide range zoom lenses and, would respond to a wide range of light wavelengths; plus accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers. The head assembly also contained an olfactory sensor, or artificial nose which required a source of vacuum. There was a plastic tube running down to what would be the neck, I assumed the robot would have some sort of 'lung' or bellows to provide the required negative air pressure.

My testing of this prototype assembly went well, I again followed the specifications provided. But, as before, the interface protocol indicated that the specified testing limits were way too narrow. Once again I modified my test procedures to find the limits of the envelope, and once again I discovered just how amazing this hardware was. What we had here were 'ears' with 1000 times the sensitivity of a human ear, with at least an octave or two wider frequency range in both directions. The 'eyes' had similar expanded ability over human eyes, higher sensitivity to low light, and the ability to see into the deep IR and UV wavelengths. What were they building here?

* * *

Sometime later, I was given the assignment to bench test bits of AI code. I felt a bit out of my league here, but Mr. Johnson wasn't concerned about my abilities.  
"Just make use of my template primitives you'll find in the AI libraries on the network. There are a host of test suites there you can adapt to build your test modules, and they are commented so well a sixth grader could understand them." He bragged. "Besides, you won't be the only programmer working on the same modules. The only way to debug this stuff is to get as many eyes as possible on it. What you miss, someone else will find, and visa versa. Trust me on this!"

Sure enough, it didn't take me more than a few days of studying the code sources to figure out where to begin. By the end of a fortnight, I had a complete enough test suite running to start bench testing the first of the AI routines we were assigned to adapt to the Japanese code. There were terabytes of code to run though, and between us and the contractors on the other side of the Pacific, it would take most of a year to complete all of the software work. It would have taken years longer if we didn't have Johnson's decades of research to start from. I later learned that the Japanese software was based on the work of an Asian genius, the late Dr. Kutcher.

* * *

It had now been over two years since I had joined the company. Time has a way of flying by when you are busy, and projects have a way of becoming ready for final assembly and testing. Before we knew it, we were making preparations to deliver our pieces of the puzzle. I was going to be one member of the team of engineers to be making the trip to Japan. I renewed my passport, and had made sure that all of the medical requirements for a work visa were taken care of.

A new facility had been built in the city of Takarazuka, Japan for the purpose of the project. The Japanese consortium that was managing the entire project had arranged for housing of the American engineers, as well as any of the Japanese workers that would have faced a long commute every day. They offered to allow the engineers to bring their spouses along, something my wife was happy about as the work might last for several months.

We took a nonstop flight to Osaka, and then a short rail trip to Takarazuka. After getting settled into our temporary housing, we made our first visit to the industrial complex where we met the engineering team from the various Japanese companies that we had been working with via the Internet for the past two years. I was slightly embarrassed that while the Japanese engineers could speak and understand English well enough to make themselves understood, I didn't know more that a handful of words in their language. (Clyde Johnson on the other hand was almost fluent in our host's native tongue.) Over the course of my stay in the country I would pick up a bit of the language, at least enough to be polite with my new friends.

The initial work consisted of running the same tests that I had done before, only this time on the final hardware assemblies. I was now working on the complete final hardware, rather than on the partial mock ups. For example, the arm assembly that I now now was testing was the complete unit from hand to shoulder. My test suite had to be expanded, and this time the envelope was wide open. We had a full range tension and torsion meter that could measure force up to several tons. I can't reveal just how powerful the robotic limbs really were, but suffice it, to say I expect an android built with these could bench press a locomotive!

There were lots of parts and sub-assemblies that I was not asked to test, in fact the details were kept secret from me. I did have full access to the internal Intranet that the consortium stored all documentation on. The file names were in a mixture of Japanese and English, as were the documents themselves. However, the blueprints were hyper-linked and indexed to other documents and I was able to piece together enough of the puzzle to wet my curiosity. Some of the pieces of the puzzle didn't make much sense, such as the blueprints to a subminiature plasma-ion ram jet engine, and cold fusion electric battery power supply.

I spent a lot of time working with a team of programmers from the Asian country bench testing and tuning AI software. Old man Johnson was in the thick of it with me and the other programmers from our company. It wasn't long before we were all conversing in "Japlish", having borrowed words from each others vernacular. Meanwhile, the hardware engineers were in another part of the building reenacting a scene from Frankenstein, or so it appeared. During a break from my work I snuck over to the hardware section to get a peak. By this time the object of all of our work appeared to be near completion. I saw a humanoid android taking form. It stood about 4 feet tall, the arms and legs looking familiar as I had been testing the earlier versions of that hardware. The skin was not yet in place, so it looked more like the illustrated pages from a 'Grey's Anatomy' textbook than a completed being. The engineers were using the 'black box' devices and software I had written to test their work as they assembled the robot. I felt a bit left out, and maybe a bit angry, but also quite proud of my work.

Clyde Johnson and I were the only two Americans invited to witness the final testing and initial power up of the project. I suspect they wanted us to be on hand if the AI software had any glitches, but I was excited to see the end result. Unfortunately we had to watch from afar, up in the 'balcony' of the 'operating room'. The little android was lying on the operating table, strapped down. I could see that the framework was now covered with the skin like covering, there was an open panel in the robot's chest though which a profusion of cables were connected. We were able to monitor the vital systems on various remote computer monitors, but we didn't see anything really exciting. The 'patient' was brought to life, but remained in a state of suspended animation. We weren't allowed to see the first human-robot interaction with the little android, and we were simply told that the project had been completed to the consortium's satisfaction, and we were thanked for our help.

* * *

I couldn't have felt more miffed over the end result. Mr. Johnson acted as if he had expected the events to unfold for us as they did, and simply started packing up for our return home. My wife and I did some tourist type site seeing before we started to prepare to return home. At least we were given some time to enjoy ourselves. I would be the last member of the team to return home, I was owed the vacation time, and I was given the option to spend it in Japan with my wife.

While we were both in our dormitory room packing there was a knock on the door. The director of the consortium stood in the door way.  
"There is someone who wants very much to meet you, Alvin-san, if you don't mind." he said.  
Holding his hand was a timid looking youth who stood looking down at his feet. He seemed to gather his courage to raise his head to look at my wife and I with his large brown eyes. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was not a human boy, but rather the very android that I had watched being designed and assembled.

"Hello" he said in a weak, timid voice. "Thank you very much for your help."

The feeling was almost electric. I could not imagine that I was talking to a machine, the little fellow so closely mimicked a real precocious little boy. The child like being was dressed in short pants and a plain blue tee shirt. He wore boot like red shoes that went almost halfway up to his knees. He had an innocent smile on his face. His head sported a squared off hairline with two protruding cowlicks.

"Atom insisted on meeting the man he thought was responsible for his existence. You did do a lot of the intricate design and testing that made this project a success. As you can see the AI software that you helped complete has been able to reason out how it came into being." The consortium director told me.

I bend down slightly to the boy's level. "I'm pleased to meet you Atom-chan. But I really can't take as much credit as you are giving me." I replied.

"Don't sell yourself short Alvin-san." He said. "I've just been born you know, and will be going though a lot of testing. Would you stay and help?"

I looked at the director with a question on my face.

"I've asked your supervisor before he left the country. He said it was up to you. The consortium would like you to stay and continue working with us during the testing and proving phase. Of course, we do ask you to keep certain details secret for a while." He said.

"Please!" Atom looked up and begged me.

I turned toward my wife who was already rubbing Atom's head with her right hand. She simply nodded her head.

"I guess that's a yes" I answered.

* * *

The next few months were like a dream come true for me. I still can not believe what I experienced, despite the fact that I had been exposed to all of the technical data along the way. Needless to say, the rumors of Japan's secret super hero have gone viral on the network. I've kept quiet about this for long enough. Now that much of the details have leaked out, I might as well publish my end of the story, and confirm the rumors as truth. We had created such an innocent, self sacrificing, hero persona in Atom. When it came time to finally leave for home, I had a hard time doing so.

No where else in the world could the miracle I witnessed have come to be. There is something in the mind set of the Japanese people that allowed for this spark of inspiration to foster. But I hope old man Johnson isn't too taken back by it. His decades of inspiration could very well have been the giant shoulders that Japan's robot scientists stood on to see the vision.

The fallout from the AI development eventually worked its way into the thousands of service robots that are now being supplied though out Japan, and elsewhere. They help assist the elderly and disabled, giving them a higher quality of life.

I'm now looking forward to my upcoming retirement. I now know that I will be ending my career on an up note.

* * *

_A.N. "Project Atom" is a real initiative proposed by the Japanese government. In much the same way that the United States committed itself toward landing a man on the moon, Japan proposed the vision of advancing robotics toward the goal of producing a self aware robotic being. The actual intelligence level was to be that of a five year old child. The project proposal took its name from Osmau Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom manga character._


End file.
